Tag: technology

Technology has touched our lives in every possible ways. It has reached to a point that it is much easier to chat online than talk to a person. It’s like a group of friends deciding to meet in a café. When they meet, they are busy taking selfies, Welfies and posting them online. Tagging each other and discussing who commented on whose pictures, and what are the latest trends/news on the Social platforms. Think about it, can we really avoid Social Media related topics during a conversation with friends? It is now intertwined into our lives. Infact people are compelled to take actions in real life to feed their online life.

In such advance world, elders feel neglected and left out. We moved and settled in far off cities. And tend to visit home during big festivals. Not enough time to meet the extended family. While life is happening on one end, we don’t realise that elders are being cut off. Even if we call them occassionally but it take years to see them in flesh.

In this situation, I must say I am very proud of my eldest Maasi. I wasn’t in touch with her for over 10-15years. Occasionally we may talk but the conversation used to be brief. There was lot going on in our lives.

One fine day, we got connected over WhatsApp. We started chatting and hit it off as if those 10-15 years vanished in few seconds. Of course, there is a lot to catch up but this was a good starting point.

What amazed me even more was when she was trying her hand on Facebook! As a Facebook user, we may feel that it is no big deal. But this brought me to the year 2006 when I was trying to make a profile on Facebook for the first time. The platform was asking basic but never-ending questions. Many times I was confused on where to click, what to do? And here I am talking about 70year old lady who was never exposed to internet before. She not only learnt to deal with internet but she created her profile on networking sites. My amazement doesn’t end here,she also created a cool family group that has about 30 members. She is a shining star among technology retards. Now, in my mind, there is no excuse to learn the new and upcoming technology. The only explanation for not catching up on technology is not being aware of the surrounding or just being lazy.

She may have achieved a little in her own world. But this is a huge inspiration for all the youngsters out there. Learning is for life. That is how you are connected
and stay alive.

By the way, my mother is almost 12-15 years younger but she learnt and picked up Social Media long ago. I wasn’t that amazed because I was pushing her to learn. Learning Social Media and internet was not an option but necessity. It was a MUST so that she can interact with me regularly. You do have a higher expectation from your MOTHER!

If you have similar story like this, where technology has touched women’s lives and empowering them, please do share.

The reason why I write these posts is because I like to share my learning on life, thoughts, and ideas about events that happen around me. The idea is to make the topics more relatable. Therefore, you will find my writing style is more like an open diary.

Today’s topic is about the news that I have been hearing around the perils of technology. The pace with which things are changing is scary. The only way to avoid this fear is to be aware of the changes.

Recently I came across a video on Facebook that gave me a little nudge of what is coming in future. The video was of a design company that got rid of desktops and laptops. It is completely paperless. All the employees have VR glasses and they all were working in Virtual reality. It looked funny because from outside, it felt like they are touching air or something invisible. That video was supposed to be cool but to be honest I detested it. In those few seconds, I imagined myself in that work environment and a big “NO” screamed from somewhere within.

News of Robots coming in and taking over our jobs is as bad as a country going on a war. Why do I say this? You will know. There are arguments for both sides – a society with or without Robot. But no body can change the fact that this is going to reduce the number of jobs in the market. There ain’t any real jobs created in last decade and existing ones are disappearing. Due to the growth of shared economy, there is some job creation but they are not real jobs. People work part-time and stress out because of the nature of the work and income.

All this situation is going to impact the society immensely. Therefore, I compare the destruction to that of a war. In fact, the society is already changing. Recently, a survey showed that 80% of the people are unhappy with Uber/Grab cab services but only 4% stopped using them. That means we are pushing people towards unhappiness but they are still sticking around because of the convenience. The pursuit of convenience has crippled human minds.

With the growth of Social Media and mobile, human interaction has dropped significantly. In fact teens, these days, don’t know how and what to talk to people. Most of them are glued to small/large screens. Technology is impeding their mental and physical growth. So, we are bringing smarter robots to do mundane work but then, our kids are growing up with all these problems. Hollywood’s imagination of Robots taking over earth seems to become true.

We all speak about perils of technology but nothing gets done. Recently read a news about a technical glitch in a bank. That minor error in the software was about to bring down a big bank’s business in America. One of the employees mistakenly ran a job (shutting down the whole system) and in about 4 hours, customers started calling the bank that they can’t access their accounts and their cards were declined. It took few hours for the bank to figure out what exactly happened. And after the issue was fixed, it took another few hours to bring the business as usual. This is a great example of how things would be in future. The computer programs would be inter-dependent. Less human interaction means heavy reliance on technology. And any such errors can cost a lot.

Another one – In South Korea, one can control home appliances from outside. So, while you are traveling back home, just switch on the aircon, microwave the food, open the windows etc. But imagine for some reason, the app stops working or behave erratically, what can be done?

The underlying assumption of pushing technology to greater heights is that everything would be managed efficiently without dealing with human errors. But my question is – How can one be so sure that technology would be flawless?

With those thoughts, I will leave you to enjoy the weekend. Just remember , don’t spend too much time on screen and encourage more human interaction.

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Rashmi Anand

Rashmi is a digital marketer by profession. She is a involved mother, blogger and a socialist. This blog is a humble effort to help other working women with tips and ideas to improve their personal and professional life.

One could find topics related to career, parenting, lifestyle and reviews. This blog will also deal with problems submitted by readers.

The writing style on the blog is personalised and that is intentional. So, sit and enjoy the posts and don't forget to drop a comment and like Facebook page.